Drmd

[onionfrog]

Megadrive? those are only a few pounds. Certainly you received more donations to get more than that, I would hope. Oh I know, you also got a DS too

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Nah I'm never going to buy a DS, it just does not appeal to me. The PSP looks good but for me it always about the cost of the games. I'm such I tight git I can't bare the thought of parting with £30 every time I want a new game. I much prefer to buy a mega drive and buy all my favourite games for a couple of quid each.

I have some news about that other M68K core, the author is not ready to release the source so I won't be able to use it in DrMD. The reason is he is currently using the core in some commercial emulators, he is planning on porting his emulators to the GP32 so you should see something from him sooner rather than later. I have no idea if these emulators will be free or not though.

He has offered to lend a hand fixing the problems in the Cyclone core though, so all hope is not lost for DrMD.

Reesy

P.S Aren't the boards super fast again, lovely jubbly

​

Some help with fixing cyclone? Cool!
I Wish you the best of luck in killing those cyclone bugs!

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Reesy: Heh, what a coincidence, I finally bought a Megadrive 1 + Mega CD 2 two days ago Unfortunatelly with only two CD games, no cartridges.

 

[CeNTauR2]

Thats's nice of the guy to lend you a hand. Hope it will squash some
of the nasty bugs and make a lot more games running on DrMD.

Is hey just not YET ready to share the source, or will he never be?

Bye
CeNTauR2

 

[Reesy]

Reesy: Heh, what a coincidence, I finally bought a Megadrive 1 + Mega CD 2 two days ago Unfortunatelly with only two CD games, no cartridges.

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Hmm, did you buy it off Ebay. Because I was bidding on one and somebody decided to have a bidding war with me , I think it went for £41 in the end....It wasn't you was it?

In the end I bought one with 17 games ( 14 boxed ), Game Genie and 3 control pads ( 1 infra red ) for 31 quid. I'm now going to hunt for my favourite games.

@CeNTauR2: I think while his other projects are making money he'll hold onto the source, I can't blame him I would probably do the same. So it could be some time before he releases the source but I'm sure he will one day.

 

[Jarska333]

Heh, I bought an MD2 a while back, for 20€, with 8 boxed games and two controllers.
Now trying to find a proper connector to replace the lowzy RF-switch... :unsure:
I have a MD1 too, though.

I wonder how much a SegaCD2 should cost?

 

[DaveC]

Megadrive? those are only a few pounds.  Certainly you received more donations to get more than that, I would hope.  Oh I know,  you also got a DS too 

​

Nah I'm never going to buy a DS, it just does not appeal to me. The PSP looks good but for me it always about the cost of the games. I'm such I tight git I can't bare the thought of parting with £30 every time I want a new game. I much prefer to buy a mega drive and buy all my favourite games for a couple of quid each.

I have some news about that other M68K core, the author is not ready to release the source so I won't be able to use it in DrMD. The reason is he is currently using the core in some commercial emulators, he is planning on porting his emulators to the GP32 so you should see something from him sooner rather than later. I have no idea if these emulators will be free or not though.

He has offered to lend a hand fixing the problems in the Cyclone core though, so all hope is not lost for DrMD.

Reesy

P.S Aren't the boards super fast again, lovely jubbly

​

Sounds great to me. Once the cyclone bugs are fixed DrMD will be about perfect. It is great as it is now though as the Cyclone bugs aren't too frequent. The sound bug is much more common but those new sound settings may help.

Any news about progress with DrMD? No rush, just curious of how things are going.

 

[Reesy]

I've just this second worked out why the sound in a lot of games isn't working. It was because of the way I was emulating the FM timers.

I used to update the timers as the sound was rendered, but I think this was causing problems because games were expecting the fm irq flag to be set.

So I have now changed the emulator to update the fm timers on every scanline instead, this has fixed almost every game I've tried so far ( aladdin, Cannon Fodder, Rock and Roll Racing to name a few ).

All I have to do now is re-write the DAC emulation so that it works with lower sound rates. This should hopefully make the DAC perfect because at the moment its slightly off.

I'm also going to have to re-write the save state code, my current approach is causing problems everytime I have to change something. I'll make sure that the re-write is compatible with the current format, so don't worry. I'll also add a function to automatically upgrade ver 1.0 save states to the latest format.

Oh and I also have to fix that sprite priority problem, then I'll release another beta and then a public release.

Reesy

 

[Jarska333]

Ah, a lightbulb just lit over your head.

 

[DaveC]

I've just this second worked out why the sound in a lot of games isn't working. It was because of the way I was emulating the FM timers. 

I used to update the timers as the sound was rendered, but I think this was causing problems because games were expecting the fm irq flag to be set. 

So I have now changed the emulator to update the fm timers on every scanline instead, this has fixed almost every game I've tried so far ( aladdin, Cannon Fodder, Rock and Roll Racing to name a few ).

All I have to do now is re-write the DAC emulation so that it works with lower sound rates.  This should hopefully make the DAC perfect because at the moment its slightly off. 

I'm also going to have to re-write the save state code, my current approach is causing problems everytime I have to change something.  I'll make sure that the re-write is compatible with the current format, so don't worry.  I'll also add a function to automatically upgrade ver 1.0 save states to the latest format. 

Oh and I also have to fix that sprite priority problem, then I'll release another beta and then a public release. 

Reesy

​

Sounds like a lot of stuff.

Will these things slow the emu down though? I remember you mentioning that if you fixed the sprite priority that it would slow down a bit. It is kind of at the limit at 144 now that any slow down in emulation is important.

I also noticed that clock settings 144 and 164 are the only ones that change anything in speed. If I set to 156 it runs the *exact* same framerate as 144, not 1 FPS more, kind of wierd. I thought in beta 6 if I bumped up the clock speed one or two notches I would be able to make up for the 2 FPS loss, but it didn't do anything at all.

I suppose I could keep beta 5 on the card too and use that to play the stuff that works with that, remembering what works best with what version may get a bit confusing though. Maybe there could be an "accurate" and "fast" setting that would switch between emu cores and use the same FXE? A game config file you could set to which version to use for each ROM. I don't know, maybe you have a better idea?

Dave

 

[Reesy]

When I say it could slow down emulation I'm only guessing, I didn't think having a couple of "IF" statements in the sound rendering routines would slow the emulator but it cost 1/2 fps. Hopefully updating the sprite code should not slow down the emulator at all but you never know. The FPS at 144Mhz for my current version is still at Beta 5 speed so none of the changes I've made so far have slowed it down.

I notice a change when using all of the different cpu settings, I'm not too sure what's different between our GP32's.

As the emulator has not slowed down yet I'm not planning on adding "accurate" and "fast" settings, but if in the end there are speed issues I will address the problem then.

************************
EDIT

Actually I take it back, I can't see a difference in fps between 144 and 164. Wierd I was sure I saw a change, but I was testing something else and noticed that the fps was not changing. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do, I will double check the code to make sure that its nothing stupid.

 

[Knuckles500]

There are only four problems:

1.) Sound's not in the best quality, but I can understand why

2.) Sound brakes up during some games and sounds a bit rippled

3.) Again, FGen can emulate sertain games while drmd can't. (Example: Sonic Jam 6)

4.) Some games hit at the wrong note/tempo when it comes to emulating sound.

Also, since I have a 132 GP32, I could emulate all games at 150 and under, only if the battery power is good enough. You should add more speed options. (152, 153, ect...).

But other than this, I predict a final release in July.

EDIT: I can also see that you're doing it as I speak...o_o

 

[bast525]

I have more genesis stuff in my house than anything...

I have three Nomads, a Genesis 2, a Genesis 3, a second gen Sega CD, some 50 cartridge games and 30 CD games. Though now, I just play all my genesis stuff either on GP 32 or Xbox.

 

[shinneri]

Reesy, Super Baseball 2020 doesn't work quite right for some reason, the menus will print only on about the top 2/5th of the screen and nothing (beside the background) will print on the bottom. The game itself runs fine, however (music doesn't, but you've solved that now).

The menus show up fine in fGen, however, so I think this probably isn't a Cyclone bug. Any ideas?

 

[DaveC]

There are only four problems:

1.) Sound's not in the best quality, but I can understand why

2.) Sound brakes up during some games and sounds a bit rippled

3.) Again, FGen can emulate sertain games while drmd can't. (Example: Sonic Jam 6)

4.) Some games hit at the wrong note/tempo when it comes to emulating sound.

Also, since I have a 132 GP32, I could emulate all games at 150 and under, only if the battery power is good enough. You should add more speed options. (152, 153, ect...).

But other than this, I predict a final release in July.

EDIT: I can also see that you're doing it as I speak...o_o

​

Dude your GP32 must be busted. The sound sounds GREAT in a game that it is working correctly. Don't have ANY complaints here, and I am picky.

The tempo issues are fixed in the beta releases.

Add more speed options? why? only 144 and 164 have any effect anyway.

Release in July? Well you could always help out and debug some code for Reesy, I am sure then it will speed up the process for you impatient ones

 

[bast525]

aw man now I have to try to remember all the games I had tried and wanted to play that didn't have working music there were quite a few and I just deleted them all off the SMC... All I can remember is Vectorman




by any chance can someone list all the games they've tried in one of the recent betas that didn't have the working music?

 

[Reesy]

DAC is now perfect at all sound rates.

 

[hando]

Great news I hope you'll release it soon

 

[Blah]

Great news I hope you'll release it soon

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Well, its officially beta 7, so he's getting close!

DrMD Beta 7  running at 144Mhz sound at 16Khz

James Pond 2 runs fine at 45fps
James Pond 1 runs fine at 45fps
Earthworm Jim 2 runs fine at 30fps

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[Reesy]

Its just the save states to sort out, then the beta testers need to give it the once over. Then there will be a public release if everything is ok.

 

[LHC]

You've said that since beta 5